I love Australian food – meats,
fishes and veggies, their textures, flavours – and the fact that it
does not go over-the-top with breads and potatoes on the sides. More
often than not, it's simple, fresh, spiced and flavoured well. It is
easy on the stomach and very filling. And a reason why I haven't
bothered to look for Indian joints or takeaways. Until this weekend.
I had vegetarian guests from India who found the Aussie flavours
pheeka (the Hindi word for bland). So it was time
to go to Uncle Google (shouldn't say that because Google is 15 years
younger than me) and look up Indian restaurants near Brisbane
CBD. So there was Indian Mehfil, which seemed too posh for our
pockets, Punjabi Palace at West End in the middle of the city's art
and culture centre and Sultan's Palace in Paddington on the fringes
of the CBD.
The first night, we went to Punjabi Palace. It was 10 pm, Friday night. Whereas anywhere else in the
world, the place would be teeming with people on a weekend night,
this restaurant, like many others in Brisbane, was closing for the
day. We waited at the reception for one of the staff to attend to us.
A young man came along and told us the place was closed. “Only
takeaways,” he said. Disappointed, we ordered aloo parathas and
raita, rotis, dal and a paneer dish. They took 20 minutes to give us
our order. Back in the apartment, we found two full containers of
oily, spiced rice with with everything else. It was a sign: things
had indeed closed for the day and the staff wanted to pack
everything up before turning off the lights. The rotis (we had
forgotten to mention, tandoori) and the parathas were the size of kabuli naans, too big to fit into a large dinner plate. The food was
average by Indian standards but pretty good by Australian Indian
standards.
On Sunday night, we decided to go to
Paddington, a party hub in the city. Sultan's Palace was decorated
with gaudy lights of all colours (the Chandni Bar kind) and
paintings and murals that were inspired by Mughal and Rajput art. At
8 pm, there were empty, dirty dishes on the tables and one waiter,
who seemed Spanish/Italian. The food was good but they had run out of
dinner plates so we had to eat from the small white quarter plates.
We asked Jabeel, the manager/owner if he had paan. “All I can offer
is saunf (fennel seeds),” he said apologetically. We took spoonfuls
as he guided us to an Indian takeaway down the road.
That is how we met Prem Mishra, the
owner-manager-cook at Indian at Paddo. Mishra was stirring a curry
wearing his red apron and plastic gloves when we arrived at his
counter. We asked him for paan. “No, I don't have paan but I have
some paan masala in my car, which I can get for you,” he said. We
asked him where we could get paan. “Nowhere. Betel leaves are
banned in Queensland,” he declared. Really? “Yes.” With nothing
more to do, we asked him about his business, clientele, Indian sweets
and menu. The son of an Indian armyman who had schooled in New Delhi,
Dehradun and Bangalore, Mishra came to Brisbane as a university
student 14 years ago. He had worked in the IT sector for five years,
when one evening, he managed to win a jackpot $15000 in pokies. He
came up with the idea of investing in a restaurant the same night.
Over the years, he's had four Indian restaurants in different parts
of Brisbane. He has
created new restaurants and formats and like most entrepreneurs in
Brisbane, works hard to keep things small. Being in the party suburb
means he gets a lot of walk-ins on weekends and takeaways on
weekdays. He has made enough to support his extended family back home
in Hauz Khas and build a house in Dehradun. Does he want to ever move
back to India? Mishra responds with a shrug, “I don't know. I love cooking and
feeding people here.”
1 comment:
No, betel leaf is not banned at all in Brisbane, grows like a weed here.....
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